Monthly Archives: March 2008

Instant bibliographies

Posted on March 31, 2008 by acb

I hate bibliographies, and I suspect that any tool I bought to handle them would consume immense quantities of otherwise productive slightly less unproductive time. On the other hand, I need to have reliable references and footnotes from time to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in nördig, OOo | Comments Off on Instant bibliographies

Polyglot proficiency

Posted on March 30, 2008 by acb

I belong to a sort of informal walking club which involves a bunch of middle-aged farts shambling around the Essex countryside for a couple of hours on a Sunday before stopping at a pub for lunch. It’s not exactly exercise, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

Nowadays you’d get sued as well as kicked

Posted on March 30, 2008 by acb

I happened to be talking to an anthropologist this morning, and the conversation turned to a celebrated academic. “I knew him when I was at New College”, she said. “I was in a lift with him once. There were just … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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on being phished update

Posted on March 28, 2008 by acb

I wrote a column last week for the Guardian tech section about the discovery that someone I do business with has had their servers cracked. I know this because I have started getting spam to the email address I use … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in nördig | Comments Off on on being phished update

More Weizenbaum

Posted on March 25, 2008 by acb

A lovely passage, from the end of Chapter Seven: A theory is of course itself a conceptual framework. And so it determines what is and what is not to count as fact. The theories—or, perhaps better said, the root metaphors—that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Science without worms | 1 Comment

Rowan on Auden: WTF?

Posted on March 21, 2008 by acb

Last week Rowan Williams contributed a preface to the Guardian’s little pamphlet of Auden poetry. Did anyone at any stage, read what he wrote? In particular, did anyone actually read the following two sentences? The technical skill is always exceptional. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God, Literature | 9 Comments

fifteen minutes

Posted on March 20, 2008 by acb

till my radio programme goes out. Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 2 Comments

The nerd is the enemy of civilisation

Posted on March 20, 2008 by acb

Inspired by Scott Rosenberg, I have started to read Joseph Weizenbaum’s book Computer Power and Human Reason. Weizenbaum, who died last month, was the inventor of ELIZA, the first chatbot; and he was so horrified by the enthusiastic reactions to … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Net stories, nördig, Science without worms | 6 Comments

Articles of Note

Posted on March 16, 2008 by acb

Neal Ascherson was the only man I know who saw from the very beginning that the Iraq war would be the end of the American empire. I don’t think anyone else completely discounted the possibility that the US might in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 3 Comments

A better cold cure

Posted on March 16, 2008 by acb

The one thing about all cold cures is that they don’t work. Apart from stuff which generally stimulates your immune system, there is nothing to do but wait it out as comfortably as possible. With this in mind, I spent … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment